Dyer's budget proposal avoids forecast deficit

Plan calls for spending $681.4 million next year

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has dodged a looming deficit for the third straight year, this time saved by a booming housing market and a bailout by the Orlando Utilities Commission.

Dyer on Monday presented to the City Council his proposed budget, a $681.4 million spending plan for next year that represents a 12.8 percent increase, without a property tax increase.

The new budget, which must weather two public hearings in September, includes:

$800,000 to train new police officers, allowing the city to quickly fill as many as 15 vacancies created by attrition during the coming year.

$300,000 to design the Savannah Park Fire Station, a new station planned for southeast Orlando.

$1 million for a public park at Lake Baldwin and funding to operate several new parks and community centers that will open by the end of the year.

Earlier this year, budget forecasters predicted a $27 million deficit, the third shortfall forecast since Dyer took office in 2003.

But construction of homes and businesses in Orlando will earn the city nearly $10 million more than the previous year in property taxes, helping to close the budget gap. And at Dyer's request, the Orlando Utilities Commission will give the city an extra $13.6 million to avoid a deficit.

Dyer warned city commissioners that unless the city finds a way to bring in more money, they will have to wrestle with potential deficits in the future, as well.

"This is probably one of the toughest times of the year for the city and the council," Dyer said.

At the same time, the mayor and the council have taken steps to cut costs. In the early 1970s, the city began offering free lifetime health care to retired city employees who'd worked at least 20 years.

The annual cost of that perk has been rising quickly in recent years; budget officials expect it to cost taxpayers $8.8 million annually within two years. On Monday, commissioners quietly put an end to that benefit for city workers hired after Jan. 1, 2006.

Dyer has shifted some priorities, cutting in half the budget for removing asphalt from atop the city's vintage brick streets and instead using the money to double the amount spent on sidewalks.

The amount budgeted to repair city buildings would be slashed under the mayor's new budget, while the amount to renovate neighborhood parks and playgrounds would more than double to $250,000.

The city's property-tax rate will remain unchanged at $5.69 for every $1,000 of assessed value. At that rate, the owner of a $200,000 home with a $25,000 homestead exemption would pay about $996 in city taxes.

Dyer did not discuss the size of employee pay raises, an issue that put him at odds with the police union after last year's budget address. The Dyer administration's wage dispute with Orlando cops remains unresolved, but union officials present for his address Monday said they were pleased with the extra training money he has proposed.

"It lessens the workload on the officers on the street and gives them a little help," police union labor Chairman Sam Hoffman said. "Overall, we're happy with the public-safety forecast."